Citing a previous judgement, the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the petition of Orissa government seeking to quash the order of the High Court restraining it to provide reservation up to 66.75 per cent in government jobs in the state.

A bench of Justices A K Mathur and Dalveer Bhandari rejected the plea saying that the ceiling for reserving quota was 50 per cent and could not be enhanced according to the judgement pronounced in the Indira Sawhney case.

The state government had filed an appeal against the verdict of the Orissa High Court upholding the decision of the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT), Cuttack, that the reservation in government offices could not be more than 50 per cent.

The state had come out with a resolution in 1994 enhancing the ceiling of reservation for socially and educationally backward classes in the state from 11.25 per cent to 27 per cent. The state government had said that the state had a large population of ST, SC and OBCs and it would benefit the poor.